With 3 kids at separate levels of education they are all off at different times for their school vacation . This week is the University week off so took the oldest skiing today . Once again , we were faced with the same weather problems of the rain /snow mix scenario . Where to go to escape the rain and fog . South of the St. Lawrence did not look good so once again stayed home and headed north east across the Laurentians to St. Donat to escape the rain . All snow in the St. Donat region this morning as about 2 to 3 " of accumulation on a hard base that softened and blended in the afternoon sun .

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Cut out Glade Trail in the early morning with thick clouds.

Old T Bar Track makes for a great ski trail . T Bar shack in the background

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Nice Natural snow trail skied well with the new snow and clouds lifting .

Garceau it is , headed over wednesday morning as they picked up all snow and $18.00 lift tickets. The trails on skiers left is where the pics are from. More snow in the forecast . Did you ski at this place?

Friday night we hovered over the computer screen watching the colour enhanced radar images of the developing storm to decide where to go . Do we bust out of the Laurentians and drive 2 plus hours or stay local as haven't spent this much time at home in over 30 years . Made the call to stay home as the total snow amounts were about even either side of the St. Lawrence . This morning we had about a foot of relatively dry snow so we headed over to Alta to ski the steep ridge along Highway 117 . Everything wide open , made first tracks for hours on end . Snow held up well , should be good skiing tomorrow as well .

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Taking another line down the ridge.

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Quick decent , ignore the branches , snow is over 4 feet deep in this area .

Start of the HS , Primary school break in Quebec and didn't want the younger generation sitting at home playing call of duty all day so used up a vacation day to take them out on a Friday . A few inches of snow fell on Thursday ( March 1 ) setting up decent natural snow conditions this morning for first tracks . Freezing rain started around noon and continued all afternoon . It didn't affect the snow as it was light , however kept icing up the goggles . Could be a wild day tomorrow weather wise as snow , rain and ice in the forecast , will see what happens.

After the week long heat wave that saw temperatures reach close to 80 F things have settled down to just above average temps in the 40'S with thick overcast blocking out the sun . Unfortunately , the damage is done as natural snow skiing is over , trail count on all list serviced hills still in operation is reported at 28 % . The 28 % is the collective total of all trails that had enough artificial snow to withstand the heatwave. I like to measure the season by how long It is possible to ski without artificial snow since most of my ski time is spent on natural snow trails . This year it was under 100 days and this is a stretch as in December made some turns on trails with more leaves than snow . So there you have it a season of about 12 weeks with a few good powder days , a far cry from my days as a kid in the Laurentians skiing early November to May on natural snow .